Climate Change

The meeting focused on the intersection of green finance and climate change resilience in Papua New Guinea. These discussions highlighted the central role of the Green Finance Centre (GFC), facilitating an exchange of insights on enhancing climate resilience and green growth through financial strategies, among officials from the New Zealand Ministerial Delegation, BPNG, the Climate Change Development Authority (CCDA), and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI).

With the global climate crisis looming large, PNG is demonstrating its resolve to secure a greener tomorrow for future generations.

The Climate Change and Development Authority (CCDA), mandated to steer PNG's compliance with the Paris Agreement, is at the forefront of this mission. With steadfast determination, CCDA is poised to deliver PNG’s First Biennial Transparency Report (BTR) by the close of 2024, showcasing the nation's strides in combatting climate change.

For decades, experts have been trying to reconcile the precise time, as set by atomic clocks, with the somewhat unreliable speed at which the Earth spins.

Since 1972, authorities have added 27 leap seconds to our time standard – UTC, or Co-ordinated Universal Time – to compensate for a slow-down in the Earth's spin caused largely by the pull of the Moon on the oceans known as "tidal friction".

Highlighting the importance of open democracy, they pledged to support civil society in devising local solutions harnessing the diverse talents of citizens.

Central to their collaboration is the elevation of women across all sectors, with a focus on economic empowerment and building resilience against climate change. President Biden underscores climate change as an existential threat, promising support for the Solomon Islands in enhancing climate resilience, disaster response, and renewable energy capacity.

FIRST stands for (Finance Initiative for Resilience and a Sustainable Transition, the AUD 20 million project was launched by NCD Governor, Powes Parkop in Port Moresby recently.

The project spearheaded by the Papua New Guinea government in collaboration with Australia, aims to mobilize substantial international and domestic climate financing.

These funds will support transformative initiatives focused on climate adaptation and mitigation across PNG, particularly at the provincial level where vulnerabilities are most acute.

Harvesting is happening earlier or later than usual. National Research Institute (NRI) in its latest reports writes that these are pieces of evidence of climate change which has and is threatening the food security of local communities.

There is often a gender gap in agriculture and women face more constraints than men in accessing resources, markets, and services. Women farmers tend to face more challenges than men because of low literacy, societal and cultural norms and their responsibilities in the family. 

The 28th UNFCCC global climate negotiations are drawing record crowds and set to exceed 60,000-plus attendance records for the COP Presidency led by Forum and Pacific delegations, like many at the recent COP, featured increased numbers of youth voices to help amplify the Pacific urgency and future-facing focus for climate ambition, climate action and climate justice at the COP28.

TotalEnergies launched its Zero Net Deforestation (ZND) policy for all new projects across the company in March 2022 and PNG was the first country to implement this policy.

The ZND policy requires that any unavoidable deforestation of the forest cover is compensated by, at least, an equal area replanted elsewhere. 

In partnership with the PNG Forest Authority (PNGFA), the core of the Papua LNG ZND project covers four projects: Afforestation, Biodiversity, Mangrove Rehabilitation & Conservation and Sandalwood Conservation.

The recent 'Second China-Pacific Island Countries Workshop on Climate Change' and the 'High-level Pacific Island Countries Climate Action Dialogue' marked pivotal moments in the joint commitment to combat climate challenges in the Pacific region.

Representatives from Pacific Island Countries engaged in discussions focusing on climate governance, regional responses, terrestrial ecosystems, marine ecology, and ocean governance during the two-week events held in Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, China.

The financial support is dedicated to preserving nature, forests, and mitigating climate impact.

Papua New Guinea, boasting the world's third-largest primary rainforest, holds 7 per cent of the planet's biodiversity.

This innovative 'country package' represents a groundbreaking financing mechanism arising from an international dialogue seeking to fortify North-South solidarity. Its objectives include: